"It’s easy to jump on the bandwagon, but daring to be oneself, especially when it means standing alone, is real bravery... Inspired people uplift others, creating a domino effect that has the power to change the world."

"Opera changes people on a molecular level," she says. "The unamplified voice is a frequency that changes them. Maybe my particular frequency, my particular aesthetic, won't move everybody – but it could move someone."

"There are times in life where there just isn't a question that it's the right next step to take," Winters says. "With opera and my husband it has felt like that – like I didn't have a choice. It's that strong of a pull."

"Singer-songwriters like Joni Mitchell and great divas from the past like Maria Callas and Renata Tebaldi have shaped my aesthetic as an artist. Their voices are both beautiful and raw, always serving the text. I approach my work with the same ethic. Beautiful tone draws people in, but primal emotion breaks hearts – an easy thing to forget after years of higher education and trying to ‘get it right’."

If you want to know how big an impact La Traviata has had on the life and career of soprano Corinne Winters, take a peek at her back. Last year, the London-based singer had a large camellia blossom tattooed on her right shoulder blade. The fast-wilting flower is symbolic of the opera’s beautiful but doomed heroine Violetta Valéry, whom Winters has played to great acclaim all over the world. She’ll take on the role for the seventh time next weekend...

American soprano Corinne Winters shot to fame in the UK when she starred in Peter Konwitschny’s controversial staging of La traviata at English National Opera – a real tour de force for the soprano who is barely off-stage for the entire evening in a production which plays through without interval. It’s the character of Verdi’s Violetta with whom she has been inextricably linked and is the focus of our conversation.

American soprano Corinne Winters seems to be on the fast track to opera stardom – she’s making major house debuts left and right and transforming some of the great leading ladies – Violetta, Tatyana, and Mimì, to name a few – into her signature roles. Currently Winters is making her Seattle Opera debut as Violetta in Verdi’s La traviata.

Violetta, the heroine of Verdi’s “La Traviata,” is one of the iconic roles of the operatic repertoire, the measuring stick by which almost all sopranos are judged. It is so imbued with depth and intensity that years and years of performance reveal greater degrees of nuance in different interpreters. Corinne Winters loves the role of Violetta. It is one of her warhorses and a role that she identifies with on an emotional and deeply personal level. Now she will get three opportunities, 11 performances, to explore the role in the first half of 2017 at three different opera houses in three different productions starting on Jan. 14.

We had the chance to speak with Winters about the "intense and subtle" Mélisande, her offstage creative outlets, and how she stays happy and healthy on the road. Frankly, we'll take wellness tips from any soprano who can run a half-marathon.

Corinne Winters, the young American soprano, meets me at the London Coliseum. It has effectively been her artistic home since her breakthrough appearance as Violetta in Verdi’s La traviata in 2013. Her megawatt personality and quick, strong thinking remain undimmed after a full-on morning rehearsal for English National Opera’s new production of La Bohème, in which she sings Mimi, perhaps Puccini’s best-loved heroine.

Corinne Winters chats with WETA's Nicole Lacroix about her debut recording, Canción Amorosa: Songs of Spain, Viva La Voce's Vocal CD Pick of the Week. Corinne talks about the 4 different Spanish dialects she had to master for this recording, and about her lifestyle blog, theartisantraveler.com.

Corinne Winters has drawn unfettered praise from critics worldwide, had her image recently grace the cover of the Kennedy Center's magazine, and is booked for international performances for the next couple of years. But for now, she's conducting an interview on her cellphone while riding a city bus.

In February 2013 Corinne Winters created an absolute sensation in her operatic European debut ... Vocally, physically, dramatically her Violetta was so “complete”, so unanimously greeted by superlative reviews, that it marked a highly significant arrival on the international opera scene.